Strategic storytelling for vegan leaders

❌ Data won’t save the world.

If you’re involved in mission-critical work trying to make the world a better place for animals, people or planet, numbers, stats and logic alone aren’t going to grab attention or influence behaviour …

Unless they’re wrapped in stories.

🧠 Our brains are hard-wired for story.

But many business owners and leaders think storytelling is ‘fluffy’ and that you need to focus only on facts.

The thing is, we forget facts and information.

✅ But we remember stories.

Stories spark emotions, build trust and connection, and have the power to change (even the hardest) hearts and minds.

Here’s a story (ha!) about how powerful stories are 👇

In 2009 a couple of journalists put a bunch of junk for sale on eBay. The outcome shows how much we’re influenced by story.

Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn bought several random items from vintage stores and garage sales.

The items included ornaments, small toys and trinkets.

There was nothing special about them: they were literally cheap junk that people had discarded.

💰 Rob and Joshua paid a total of $128.74 for them.

They then hired some volunteers to write short fictional stories relating to each item.

Using those stories, instead of just a plain, factual description, they listed the items for sale on eBay.

🤑 They sold for $3,612.51.

Yep, an increase in value of nearly 3000%.

The value of each item went up because the buyers bought into the (fictional) story.

👉 This is the power of strategic storytelling.

Now, I’m not suggesting you make stuff up and lie to people. This was an experiment carried out by the journalists (Significant Objects initiative).

You don’t need to make stories up, because you have a ton of real stories at your disposal that you can use to your advantage.

By leveraging stories, you can ethically influence others to buy your vegan products or services, buy into our movement, invest in you, or get a plant-based project over the line in the workplace.

But you need to identify the right stories, design them, and figure out when and how to tell them well.

👉 That’s where I come in:

I’ve been a storyteller for as long as I can remember.

In primary school I wrote strange short stories that teachers nowadays would likely report to social services but this was the late 70s/early 80s and my English teacher Mrs Wakeford encouraged the creative narratives that spilled from my young mind 😀

Over the years I’ve done character stand-up comedy, written and performed a one-woman show, and spent more than 20 years as a journalist telling the stories of thousands of people from all walks of life.

Through my collaborations with agencies and brands, I’ve created marketing content in partnership with Microsoft, Google, KPMG, SoftwareONE, Freshworks, Hnry, Amazon, Mailchimp and many other high-profile brands.

📖 I wrote the world’s first vegan business book Vegan Ventures and launched the first ever vegan business podcast, sharing the stories of hundreds of vegan entrepreneurs.

👉 Now I use strategic storytelling to help vegan and plant-based leaders find, craft, and share short, impactful stories that will ethically influence your audiences – whether that’s customers, investors, employees or corporate higher-ups.

Some of the many places you can use stories to effect change, facilitate connection and move people to action include:

➡️ Talks & presentations
➡️ Pitch decks
➡️ Speaker kit
➡️ Press kit
➡️ Media interviews
➡️ About page
➡️ LinkedIn profile
➡️ Social media posts
➡️ Blog posts & other articles
➡️ Your book
➡️ Elevator pitch
➡️ Job interviews
➡️ Boardrooms

There’s a reason that big corporations spend big on storytelling training and strategy – because it works!

🌱 I’m here to empower vegan founders, consultants, coaches, CEOs, corporate professionals and other leaders to harness the power of story to ethically influence and create positive change.

Brands I’ve worked with

Through my work with Pinstripe Media agency, I’ve written content in partnership with:

Client love